From Newsgroup: comp.misc


https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-150/

New Release: Tor Browser 15.0
by duncan | October 28, 2025
Tor Browser 15.0 is now available from the Tor Browser download page >https://www.torproject.org/download/
and distribution directory.
https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/15.0/
This is our first stable release based on Firefox ESR 140, incorporating a year's
worth of changes that have been shipped upstream in Firefox. As part of this >process, we've also completed our annual ESR transition audit, where we reviewed
and addressed around 200 Bugzilla issues for changes in Firefox that may >negatively affect the privacy and security of Tor Browser users. Our final >reports from this audit are now available in the tor-browser-spec repository on
our GitLab instance.
The ongoing development of Tor Browser is made possible thanks to the support of
our community. If Tor Browser is important to you, now is a great time to support
our mission to FREE THE INTERNET, as all donations will be matched by Power Up >Privacy through December 31, 2025.
Donate button
What's new?
Desktop
Tor Browser 15.0 inherits a multitude of useful new features and usability >improvements from Firefox that have passed our audit. For desktop, these include
vertical tabs: providing a more manageable, alternative layout with open and >pinned tabs stacked in a sidebar rather than across the top of the window. For >ease of access, Bookmarks can be retrieved directly from the sidebar when >expanded too. However, regardless of whether you prefer horizontal or vertical
tabs, everyone benefits from the addition of tab groups: helping you keep on top
of the clutter by organizing tabs into collapsible groups that can be given names
and color-coded. Tor Browser 15.0 also inherits elements of Firefox's recent >address bar refresh, including a new unified search button that allows you to >switch search engines on the fly, search bookmarks or tabs, and reference quick
actions from the same menu.
Note that Tor Browser tabs are still private tabs, and will clear when you close
the browser. This enforces a kind of natural tidiness in Tor Browser since each
new session starts fresh – however for privacy-conscious power users, project >managers, researchers, or anyone else who accumulates tabs frighteningly quickly,
we hope these organizational improvements will give you a much needed >productivity boost.
A screenshot featuring Tor Browser for Desktop with vertical tabs enabled and >three tab groups present in the resulting sidebar
Android
On Android, screen lock adds an extra layer of security to your browsing >sessions. After enabling screen lock in Settings > Tabs, your tabs will lock >automatically when you switch away from the browser without closing it. Upon >returning to the app, you'll be prompted to unlock your tabs using your >fingerprint, face, or pass code, depending on which option your device is >configured to use.
Like Tor Browser for Desktop, your browsing session will still be cleared when >Tor Browser is closed. However, this feature provides peace of mind in a specific
scenario: by ensuring that your browsing remains private even if someone has >gained temporary access to your unlocked phone with Tor Browser open in the >background – whether you've handed it to a friend, or left your device sitting on
a table.
A screenshot demonstrating screen lock for Tor Browser on an Android phone, >followed by a second screenshot of a passcode being entered
What's changing?
Updates to Android and Linux device compatibility
At present, Firefox 140 and Tor Browser 15.0 support Android 5.0 or later, which
was released almost 11 years ago. While Mozilla's commitment to support such an
old version of Android is admirable, it introduces several technical and security
challenges for developers. As a consequence, Firefox have announced their >intention to increase the minimum support requirements to Android 8.0, and have
also decided to drop support for x86 CPUs for Android and Linux. Sadly, it's not
possible for the Tor Project to maintain support for these platforms on our own
without official support from Mozilla.
While these changes won't impact Tor Browser users immediately, we expect them
to take effect with the release of Tor Browser 16.0 mid-next year. This means >that Tor Browser 15.0 will be the last major release to support x86 for Linux and
Android, in addition to Android 5.0, 6.0, and 7.0. However, we will continue to
release minor updates with security fixes for these platforms until Tor Browser
16.0's eventual release.
Although nobody wants to see support for their platform get dropped, it's an >important step to maintain the stability and security of both Firefox and Tor >Browser over time, and will allow developers to utilize newer technologies in >both browsers. In addition, supporting x86 for Android has been particularly >challenging for our developers due to the 100MB package size limit imposed by >Google Play. While we have deployed several workarounds to stay within this limit
in the recent past, these often come at a cost – such as x86 Android users >missing out on the Conjure pluggable transport, for example.
Disabling of WebAssembly now managed by NoScript
WebAssembly (or Wasm) is a web technology that helps websites and web apps run >faster. It allows web developers to write programs in languages like C, C++ or >Rust, and compiles these into a special format that web browsers can run more >efficiently.
As has been suggested in this meta-analysis from 2024, further investigation of
Wasm's potential exploits is necessary – therefore Wasm is currently disabled in
the Safer and Safest security levels in order to reduce Tor Browser's attack >surface. Up until now, this was achieved by setting the global preference >javascript.options.wasm to false – however this approach was no longer viable >after Mozilla implemented part of their PDF reader in Wasm between versions 128
and 140. Consequently, we have decided to move control of Wasm to NoScript, which
is bundled with Tor Browser, and already manages JavaScript and other security >features. This means that Wasm now works on privileged browser pages such as the
PDF renderer, but NoScript will continue blocking the technology on regular >websites at the Safer and Safest security levels.
Users who have manually set javascript.options.wasm to "false" while in the >Standard security level will see their security level represented as "Custom" >instead. To mitigate any issues that may arise with the browser's PDF reader, we
encourage those users to switch the preference back to "true", thereby passing >management of Wasm over to NoScript. Furthermore, manually disabling Wasm at the
Standard security level (either via NoScript or javascript.options/wasm) may also
make your fingerprint more unique by deviating from Tor Browser's default >configuration. To avoid this scenario, we recommend sticking with one of the pre-
defined security levels and caution users against making further changes to >individual preferences in about:config.
Alternatively, should you wish to keep Wasm disabled in future, we invite you to
increase your security level to Safer or Safest going forward. Note that both >Safer and Safest users may notice javascript.options.wasm switch to "true" >automatically as management of Wasm is passed over to and blocked by NoScript,
meaning that you are still protected regardless. In addition, Safest users in >particular are not vulnerable to any potential vulnerabilities introduced by Wasm
since the format requires JavaScript to work.
Known issues
Tor Browser 15.0 comes with a number of known issues that can be found in Tor >Browser's issue tracker. In particular, we would like to highlight the following:
Desktop
The initial release of vertical tabs in Tor Browser includes a couple of quirks:
When the sidebar is visible (such as when vertical tabs are enabled), the >window may visibly resize when Tor Browser is launched.
Due to variations in window size, Letterboxing may be visible. You still get >the anti-fingerprinting protections provided by Letterboxing, but the default >window size will be different than intended.
We are currently working to issue a fix for both of these bugs. Please see tor-
browser#44096 for details.
Android
Web pages may not load after updating Tor Browser on older versions of >Android. This can be fixed by clearing your app cache manually in Settings > Apps

Tor Browser > Storage & cache.

Get involved
If you find a bug or have a suggestion for how we could improve this release, >we'd love to hear your feedback. If you would like to contribute to a future >release, please see our guide for new contributors to get started.
Full changelog
The full changelog since Tor Browser 14.5.9 is:
...

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